The Day The Sun Set.

I didn’t move.

I didn’t even flinch.

The others were already gone, riding out into the open desert, leaving streaks of dust and heat behind them. Their engines screamed. They had maybe… 500 feet on me now?

I just stared forward.

Still.

I could already feel the words forming in people’s mouths.

“Is she broken?”

“She flinched.”

“She choked.”

At first, it was subtle like a small quake rolling under my feet. Not enough to knock anything over. Just enough to make you feel it deep in your gut.

Then the sand—collapsed.

To the left.

Right under some of the racers in the distance.

A crack split the desert wide open and something huge burst out of it, fast, violent. The sand didn’t just explode, it vanished, sucked downward like water draining out of a broken dam. The sand just peeled apart. Like the desert was exhaling something awful it had been holding for too long.

Something huge started rising. Fast. Heavy.

At first, I thought it was a dune lifting in the wind, but it didn’t fall. It kept rising. Curved.

It was tall enough to cover the sun.

At least 12 racers just disappeared under that thing. Bikes, racers, drones, all swallowed in a heartbeat. A tidal wave of dust and debris slammed outward, rocking my V2 and stinging my face.

And then I saw the plates.

Big, armor-like chunks of shell—layered, wet-looking, covered in sand. Each one shimmered with heat, bending the air around them.

It kept coming.

I realized I wasn’t breathing.

A line of jagged fins cracked out of its back, one by one, snapping up like blades. It wasn’t just crawling out. It was uncoiling.

The whole desert seemed to groan under it.

I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t blink.

That… thing just tore out of the earth and erased them. The racers were engulfed.

“GOOOO!!”

Juno’s voice hit me like a gunshot through the mic.

I didn’t think. I moved.

Foot slammed down, V2 screaming under me.

All who were blessed to witness this spectacle… were cursed with something else.

Consequence.

There was a time, long ago,

when sand did not swallow the land now called Orati Sands.

Water fell freely from the sky.

When clouds wept and cloaked the earth in white.

When the ground bloomed with beginnings.

There were four gods.

Not rulers, but guardians.

Not judges, but witnesses.

Each held a thread in balance.

Each was a keeper of change.

Each, a guardian of time.

For as long as anyone could remember, monsters and beasts refused to cross within two hundred miles of Solaris.

That changes now.

A boy named Juno wakes beneath a sun that never sets.

He remembers no war.

Knows nothing of gods.

But he, like all others, will bear witness—

to something that can only be called

divine punishment.

Both the powerful and powerless amount to nothing under it.

The Sun’s Undoing.

Also know as Sol’ kara.

The Devourer Of The Sun.

The ground trembled faintly beneath their feet, a distant reminder of the chaos below.

A pale orange glow lit the horizon as smoke and dust rose in spirals, twisting up into the eternally bright sky. Drones buzzed overhead like curious vultures. Down below, racers scattered like ants from a kicked nest.

He adjusted his lens, watching it all unfold on the cracked screen of his field tablet.

“…Shouldn’t they be fighting back by now?” he asked, squinting. “I mean, don’t the Solaris still have powers? Couldn’t they just… blast the damn thing?”

He didn’t answer right away. He stood with his arms behind his back, cloak billowing in the dry wind, eyes fixed on the devastation unfolding across the sands. Then, with a sharp exhale, he laughed.

“You really think they’re capable of that anymore?”

He shrugged awkwardly. “I mean, back in the day—”

“Back in the day,” cut in, “they were warriors. “Now? They’re insects. Sheltered too long, unwilling to leave the hive.”

“Their powers are brittle. Faint shadows of what they once were. Scraps passed down from ancestors they barely understand.”

“But even if someone is strong enough,” the sidekick insisted, “Sol’kara’s right in the open now. Wouldn’t a solar strike at full charge—?”

“Solar?” He barked a humorless laugh. “That’s what makes this so perfect.”

He turned back to the ledge and pointed toward the desert below, where a monstrous shape slithered across the sand, causing entire dunes to collapse in its wake.

“She is The Sun Devourer. Born from the abyss below during the age of mourning. Her body feeds on heat, her scales drink light, her blood burns with it. You aim solar power at her, she gets stronger.”

The sidekick went quiet, jaw slack.

He stepped forward, wind slicing past them as if the mountain itself were listening.

“They’ll throw everything they have at her… and she’ll eat it all.”

“Let them try. The sun that once protected them will be the very thing that damns them.”

“Let them watch their gods fail.”

The wind was so strong it blew my hood down, my hair was fully out.

“Juno are you there? This is Sylvaine.” My voice cracked, there was no response.

What do I do?

I looked behind me at the mechanics camps.

Most were running around frantically while others stared into the sky.

What are they staring at?

A shadow covered me overhead, I twisted my head forward.

It lunged towards me.

I could see down its throat, rings of muscle, rows of teeth, a chasm of nothing.

Time didn’t slow, it collapsed.

But it wasn’t aiming for me.

I saw every scale, every particle of sand sliding down its underside.

It was headed for the mechanics’ camps.

“JUNO!” I yelled into the earpiece.

People raised their hands, beginning to glow yellow maybe a dozen of them mechanics, engineers, wheedlers of the sun… Desperate.

They weren’t trained for this. They weren’t soldiers.

Their palms glowed yellow light, raw and wild, pulsing like solar flares. I saw someone scream and throw a full-bodied blast straight at the creature. And I watched it vanished.

The creature tucked its fins and dove, face-first into the crowd. The scream that followed wasn’t the beast, then—

Silence.

A pulse rolled out from the impact. Sand turned to mist. People, bikes, tents gone. Just like that.

My hands shook as I rode the opposite direction.

But up ahead, I saw the racers.

They weren’t moving.

They had all stopped, every single one of them hover bikes stalled midair, engines idling like the world hadn’t just ended behind them.

I clenched my jaw and pushed forward. Blew past them without slowing down.

“GO!” I shouted, not even sure if they heard me over the wind.

For a moment, I locked eyes with Gideon.

I didn’t stop to see if he died or not.

Behind us, the worm re-emerged from the ground.

They all had watched.

it turned in their general direction and let out a sound.

A scream.

I heard Gideon shout behind me:

“FUCK OUT OF HERE!”

His bike roared to life. Others followed. Engines ignited like fireworks one after the other.

It burrowed back into the sand. Its massive fins sliced just above the surface like razors as it tunneled.

A drone zipped by overhead, its voice far too calm,

“Six racers out of twenty remain. Those who make it to Solaris get the best grand prize of all!”

“Living!” Then the drone zipped into the air.

“Sylvaine come in!” A voice.

“Juno? You’re good?” My voice almost faltered, I ignored everything else around me.

“Yeah.” He was breathing heavily “Yeah I’m good.” That thing left nothing left of the mechanic camps.

“You guys started 193 miles from Solaris, You’re going 225 miles per hour, you’ve been going for 7 minutes, aka you’ve gotten 26 of the 193 done.”

“Just summarize it!” I yelled into the mic as I looked behind me.

The other racers weren’t too far behind, and just a little further, a singular fin, at least the size of a two story house.

“Fine! Fine! You’re doing 4 miles a minute, 1 mile every 15 seconds. With that pace it’ll take an hour to reach Solaris, you’re 4% don’t right now.”

“Update me every 10 percent!” I barked into the ear piece.

“Yes ma’am.” He said compliantly.

After a moment of silence—

“10 percent reached!”

“Good!”

I leaned into my bike, do decrease wind resistance and pulled the handle back. My bike screamed.

“What the hell, Sylvi YOURE DOING 260 RIGHT NOW.”

All I heard was a small explosion, then he hissing of running sand. The monster emerged from the sand, still far behind us. It was slithering across the sand now, shit, it’s faster on the surface.

“20 percent done!”

“I have an idea!” He yelled, the mic cut off a little.

“8 MAN WEAVE MANEUVER.”

“What?” My brow furrowed, “What’s that?”

“Shit you don’t know basketball, Uh—, you guys need to spread out!”

“Wouldn’t that make it easier to pick us off?”

“Stop asking questions!” He barked at me.

“30 percent there!”

I released my grip on the handle causing me to slow down significantly, my bike got quieter and quieter. After a few seconds I was on equal footing with the other racers, all of us in a line. They were frantically driving while constantly checking behind them. I got the attention of the closest racer to me, a guy in a red helmet, I raised my hand, fingers together, then separated them, my ring finger and middle finger stayed together.

“40 percent there!”

It took him a couple seconds to understand but he nodded, he gently bumped the rider to the left of him, it was Gideon. He almost fell off their bike from the shock. Red helmet did the same hand motion to him, one by one of every rider got the message.

I counted down with my fingers as I watched the worm get closer and closer.

“50 percent there!”

3

The worm, dove into the sand.

2

The only thing we could hear was the humming of our cycles.

1.

A low rumbling began to start directly behind us.

I balled my hand into a fist, I pulled my handles to the right with all my force, and the racers on the far left of our formation did the opposite.

My V2 screamed again, I’ll have to get another after this.

Me and the Red helmet racer continued straight. Gideon and another racer steered right. The far left 2 racers steered left, peeling away like a banana.

“60 percent there!”

The sand behind us erupted again, a booming crack like the earth itself splitting apart.

But this time, the worm didn’t come straight for us.

It turned, going after the two racers that peeled off the left side.

“70 percent!”

The monster shifted its massive body to the left, sliding through the dunes with terrifying speed. Each section of its armored hide rose and fell like rolling hills, throwing up walls of sand in its wake.

“Perfect!” Juno’s voice chime in, “this should make it difficult for the worm to distinguish the group of racers with so many targets—“

I thought it was going to lunge at the riders.

but it didn’t.

The worm wasn’t picking us off one by one.

It was drawing.

The worm sped past them, body carving a colossal arc in the sand. It cut in front of the me and crimson, whipping dunes into walls of choking dust. Then it swung wide right, splitting the desert with its bulk.

“80 percent—wait… wait—Sylvi—” Juno’s breath caught.

I glanced back, heart stopping.

The creature had wrapped itself nearly full circle around us. An unbroken wall of scaled flesh and shifting dunes.

“SLITHER.IO!” Juno screamed.

“WHAT?”

“COILING! It’s boxing you in—closing the loop! MOVE!”

My gaze darted everywhere, frantic. No gaps. No escape.

Then—there.

A single break behind us where the worm’s body emerged from the sand. Its massive head was racing toward it, intent on closing the circle.

If it got there first, I’d be trapped.

I didn’t think. I moved.

Knife in hand, I spun the blade once for grip, yanked the bike into a screaming hard turn. The V2 skidded sideways, nose cutting across the sand in a drift so tight the hoverfield nearly collapsed.

I stabbed the knife into the ground, carving through grit and heat, stabilizing the slide just enough to whip into a full 180.

The gap loomed ahead. I throttled down, handles rattling under my grip.

Other racers swerved violently to avoid my path as I shot through the chaos.

“260!” Juno barked.

I didn’t hear him. Didn’t care.

“280!”

My goggles rattled from the speed. The worm’s head swung toward the opening. Two walls closing in. One chance.

“300—SYLVAI—”

I roared forward, every nerve on fire.

I yelled.

The world slowed.

Its massive head slammed toward the gap, teeth glinting. I was close enough to see saliva whip from its jaws, it bared its teeth at me, endless rows of them.

I bared my teeth back.

Grinning.

The V2 howled.

I blasted through the gap, a hair’s breadth ahead of the worm’s closing maw.

She burned.

She always burned.

Like the sun.

a silver streak carving the desert in half, she turned, passing us.

turning death into an opening

only she could make.

The worm lunged.

The gap closed.

She slipped through like she belonged there,

like the world itself couldn’t hold her.

I saw it.

I felt it.

I screamed her name,

voice ripped raw by wind and grit,

but my hands, they knew.

An era of sanctuary has ended in Orati.

The desert that once slumbered beneath a sun without mercy has awakened,

and the age of nameless survivors has shattered like glass beneath a golden heel.

Not for years, but for moments, she was called the Golden Tyrant.

a force that even the sands bent to watch.

A title born not of reverence, but resistance—

for tyrants rule through fear,

and fear is all the desert knew of her light.

But today, beneath a sky quivering with heat and death,

something changed.

The Devourer—

had never known the sting of failure.

To it, victory was not triumph…

it was nature.

Inevitable.

Unquestioned.

Until her.

And in that moment,

as steel screamed against fang,

as her trail of dust split the horizon like a blade,

the desert itself seemed to bow.

Not to a tyrant.

Not to a conqueror.

But to its Queen.

And for the first time since the world turned to sand,

the Devourer felt what it could not name.

Not hunger.

Not wrath.

Not triumph.

But defeat.